Healtheast Gives Two Hospitals One New Name

HealthEast will shed its name and former image for one that trustees believe better represents their plans for improved service and cooperation in the community.

Trustees last night approved changing the name of the Lehigh Valley Hospital Center and Allentown Hospital to Lehigh Valley Hospital, and HealthEast to Lehigh Valley Health Network.

To differentiate between the hospital's two locations, officials will use "Allentown" or "Cedar Crest."

With an alcohol-free toast, trustees celebrated the end of the HealthEast era and the beginning of a decade that management said would be marked by new partnerships and aggressive cost containment, including plans to cut expenses by $4 million next year.

The "vision" approved by the board calls for the Lehigh Valley Health Network and its doctors to maintain a leadership role in health care for the region, but to build needed comprehensive services by working with other hospitals and health care agencies.

"That is different than building a system or corporate enterprise with tentacles in all parts of the business," said Michael Thompson, board chairman.

For instance, HealthEast has identified a need for inpatient rehabilitation but has asked Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Hospital to develop those services.

Likewise, improvements are needed in community psychiatric care, Thompson said, but solutions should come from all area hospitals as well as state and local mental health officials.

HealthEast might provide some funds, leadership or motivation to get the services started, he said. "It's not a question of acquiring or managing the service ourselves."

The new names and their designs or logos should appear on the buildings and corporate stationery by April.

HealthEast paid $90,000 for Glenn Monigle and Associates of Denver to come up with the new names and the image makeover planned for the region's largest health care provider, President Sam Huston said.

For the first time, he said, the organization has developed a vision of what it wants to be in the next 10 years and has hired five renowned physicians to lead its departments of medicine, surgery, psychiatry, obstetrics/gynecology and pediatrics.

A physician from Pittsburgh recently agreed to become the hospital's new chairman of obstetrics and gynecology after a nationwide search that covered several years. He was not named last night, but is scheduled to start July 1.

HealthEast's non-profit "mission" to treat all patients based on need regardless of their ability to pay, remains unchanged. Also, Thompson emphasized that the new identity and direction does not affect corporate structure, board size and complexion, or the number of employees working for the organization.

Earlier in the day, however, Huston confirmed that HealthEast would attempt to cut $4 million in expenses from its $250 million budget in the year beginning July 1.

The organization hopes to accomplish the reduction by eliminating unnecessary vacant positions, he said, not through layoffs or firings.

About half the budget cuts would affect nursing, because it is one of the costliest departments in the hospital, Huston said.

Four million dollars was targeted, he said, because that is how much the hospital has been shifting each year to patients covered by commercial insurance plans such as Prudential and Aetna.

Because Medicare, Medicaid and Blue Cross pay hospitals a flat fee based on costs, hospitals have shifted their added expenses -- such as the cost of treating the uninsured -- to patients who pay full charges.

Patients with commercial insurance plans or who can afford to pay out of pocket are charged about 30 percent more than those with government-sponsored health benefits or Blue Cross and Blue Shield.

"We can't continue to pass on the shift," Huston said. "It's not right or good business."

Huston predicted that there would be relatively few cuts in the hospital's 4,000-member work force because of the combined value of salaries and benefits. In addition, he said, the hospital is instituting other cost-saving efforts, such as a review of antibiotic use estimated to save $300,000 annually.